Page 581 - A TALE OF TWO CITIES

A Tale of Two Cities

the hay and straw were trampled over the floor, as if there
had been a struggle.
‘‘She heard me, and ran in. I told her not to come near
us till he was dead. He came in and first tossed me some

pieces of money; then struck at me with a whip. But I,
though a common dog, so struck at him as to make him
draw. Let him break into as many pieces as he will, the
sword that he stained with my common blood; he drew to
defend himself—thrust at me with all his skill for his life.’
‘My glance had fallen, but a few moments before, on
the fragments of a broken sword, lying among the hay.
That weapon was a gentleman’s. In another place, lay an
old sword that seemed to have been a soldier’s.
‘‘Now, lift me up, Doctor; lift me up. Where is he?’
‘‘He is not here,’ I said, supporting the boy, and
thinking that he referred to the brother.
‘‘He! Proud as these nobles are, he is afraid to see me.
Where is the man who was here? turn my face to him.’
‘I did so, raising the boy’s head against my knee. But,
invested for the moment with extraordinary power, he
raised himself completely: obliging me to rise too, or I
could not have still supported him.
‘‘Marquis,’ said the boy, turned to him with his eyes
opened wide, and his right hand raised, ‘in the days when

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